Tuesday, April 9, 2019

Propaganda Poster/Flier Project

Please take a few minutes to view our class commercial projects (see post below). If you have not completed your commercial, please do so now and turn in your work after uploading your video to Youtube and send me the URL for your film in the COMMENT section below.

Propaganda Poster Project:

All advertising (commercials, product placement, billboards, etc.) is propaganda to a certain extent. Ads are meant for the viewer to BUY something. This can be a material object (a physical product or item) or an idea. The media is constantly bombarding us with products (physical or ideological) to sell us. Being aware of how you are "sold" a product is an important critical skill to have in our day and age.

Propaganda is the idea or statement (often false--perhaps 'alternative facts'--or exaggerated/hyperbole...) that are spread culturally in order to help a cause, a political leader or party, a government, or any established institution.

In the LAB: Please complete the following group/solo activities:

TASK #1: With your partner, please examine the posters below and discuss what you see. How is the artist/writer persuading you, what's the message, how is the subject treated or represented? Please note: some of these images are disturbing or promote politically incorrect material.Discuss with your partner your reaction and interpretation of the ad. Note the dominant and subdominant images/text.

TASK #2: Alone or sharing earphones with your partner, take a look at these cartoon and videos. After viewing, discuss: What is the idea or statement being spread? How might the message help a specific cause? What biases are inherent in the message?:

Sinead's Hand (Irish commercial)
The Riddle

Post a comment in the COMMENT section below about what you think regarding propaganda from viewing these materials. What sorts of propaganda do you notice (or have you noticed) in our school or in your own lives? What is the message "we" want to sell you?

TASK #3: Now that you've completed tasks #1 & #2, it's your turn. Alone or with your partner, brainstorm an idea for your own graphic "flier" or "poster" advertising or using propaganda to appeal to a viewing audience. If these come out good, we'll hang them around the school.

How to do this:

identify a current, modern-day issue that you feel passionate about
What images come to your mind when you think of this issue? (jot these down as notes)
What words or phrases do you think of? Write these down too.
Can you connect a song, poem, person, celebrity, symbol, or popular culture item to the issue?
What colors, shapes, lines, graphic elements might be connected to this issue?
Decide what will be your poster/ad/flier's dominant and subdominant images?

Then: Create and design! I suggest using a flier template. Use the samples/models above to help you. For more ideas/models, check out this site.

I found this site, which can help you create your projects! Check this link!

HOMEWORK: Please read chapter 2 of your chosen non-fiction book: In Cold Blood or The Other Wes Moore. Bring your books back with you to our next class. If you did not read up to chapter 2, please do so.

The end of the marking period happens Friday. Make sure all missing work/projects are turned in by that time.

Friday, April 5, 2019

Student Commercial Projects

Enjoy!

Madison, Jonaya, & Tali
Valerie
A'layza
Emma
Farhan
Tia, Aalaysia, Lesana
Wesley & Degraj

Commercial Projects Due! Chapter 11 ?'s Due! PSA & Propaganda Extra Credit

Your commercial projects are due today. Please upload your films to Youtube and place the URL in my comment section of this blog post, please!

Also due: Your chapter 11 (Google Classroom) questions are due. This counts as a test/quiz score.

When you complete your editing/commercial projects today, please do the following activities:

If you have missing, incomplete, or late work please complete and turn this in. The marking period ends next week Friday. No projects/late work will be accepted after next Friday for MP3.
Read and watch the material on PSA's and Propaganda. We will discuss public relations as we work on our unit on Journalism (that's what's next!) (see below!)
Speaking of Journalism, 8th period we will be traveling down to the library to pick up one of two non-fiction journalism-type books. Select one of the two and begin reading it. We will be discussing what else to do with this assignment next week. But I want to get it in your hands so that those of you who need extra time to read have the book and can start reading.

Book Choices: (Choose 1)

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote: Capote writes about a senseless, violent killing in a little American town. See the review from NPR.
The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore. 2 boys, same name, same city, two very different fates. Read the review from the Milwaukee Times.

PSAs & Propaganda

Note these 3 differences in our definitions:

Public Relations is the business of shaping and maintaining a public image of a celebrity, company, organization, or, even, a government. The Public is defined as clients, voters, members of a community, media consumers, parents/students, online groups, citizens...basically, anyone consuming mass media. With social media, public relations can directly influence or manipulate the masses. Take, for example, Mark Zuckerberg's recent PR blunder and the Cambridge Analytica apology.
Propaganda is the idea or statement (often false or exaggerated/hyperbole...) that are spread culturally in order to help a cause, a political leader or party, a government, or any established institution. The fiasco concerning the Russian Bots, for example, are a good example of this.
Advertising, on the other hand, uses simple or fixed messages through "ads" to influence a consumer to buy a product. This may include product placement on social media or in films, for example.

PSAs (Public Service Announcements) were originally used by the War Advertising Council (...can you make connections here to propaganda?...) created in 1941, to encourage American to join the war effort in Europe. The War Council (and later Ad Council, after the war) began a large campaign to influence American society on many fronts. Perhaps inspired by propaganda films such as Reefer Madness (1936), the campaigns focus on education (social messages and needs of a country or political system).

A PSA is generally short (about :30 sec. or up to a minute or two) and instead of selling a PRODUCT, the writer is attempting to sell an IDEA. PSAs are a type of propaganda.

These short films were supplied to broadcasters free of charge to use whenever they wished. American broadcasters created several short PSA educational videos in the popular School House Rock videos. Here are a few...

"The usefulness of PSA as a cost-free means to fill the gaps in fixed-duration commercial breaks left by unsold advertising airtime led to their being used regularly and extensively in the 60s, 70s and much of the 80s," and are sometimes called: "fillers". PSA's are still being produced. Broadcasters are, however, turning to third-party filler material and paid advertising to deal with unused airtime.

Here are few more modern examples:

The ease of publishing material on the internet has created a plethora of PSA announcements. Messages are only limited by our creativity. You can find more examples at the Ad Council website:

Go to Ad Council website to look over sample PSAs.
Check this website and read about propaganda here to get you started: United States Holocaust Museum.

Extra Credit TASK: take a look at these cartoons, PSA commercials, or media clips, and ask: What is the idea, statement, or image being shaped or spread? How might the message help a specific cause? What biases are inherent in the message? Then, in the COMMENT section of this post, please choose a few examples from what you've studied here and comment on the role of Public Relations & Propaganda in our Media today.

Commercial/PSAs:

More Propaganda and PSA films:

Cartoons:

HOMEWORK: Please read the chapter 1 of the book you selected. Bring your books back to our next class.

Wednesday, April 3, 2019

Commercial Project: Day 3; Quick Stop with PSA's and Propaganda

Please continue to edit and complete your commercial project. Some students are already finished--Congratulations!

Use your time in the lab to work on your editing of the project (editing film takes a lot of time!) and get caught up with any missing/late work if you find yourself done. Also, almost everybody did not complete the required participation videos so I'm reposting here.

Check out these how-to videos for tips about making a commercial. After viewing the 3 videos, in the COMMENT section of this blog post, please record what you learned about making a commercial from the videos--what information seems most helpful? Make sure you mention your sources! (past due today):

Finally, if you cannot find time to shoot your commercial outside of school, please use the time today in the lab to shoot your project. Let me know what your group needs and we'll see how to help you. Several groups did this last class, so now is the time to edit!

Our next unit will focus on journalism. There are various parts to this unit of the class. We will conclude the course with film to prepare us for next year's courses. One unit we will breeze over is the PSA/Propaganda unit. If you have completed your project, spend some time looking at these videos and this information about PSA's (public service announcements) and Propaganda in the media.

The PSA/Commercial Project

A PSA is generally short (about :30 sec. or up to a minute or two) and instead of selling a PRODUCT, the writer is attempting to sell an IDEA. PSAs are a type of propaganda.

Here are few more modern examples:

The ease of publishing material on the internet has created a plethora of PSA announcements. Messages are only limited by our creativity. You can find more examples at the Ad Council website:

Go to Ad Council website to look over sample PSAs.
Check this website and read about propaganda here to get you started: United States Holocaust Museum.

PSA announcements (since they are often promoted by the government or government institutions)

Public Relations is the business of shaping and maintaining a public image of a celebrity, company, organization, or, even, a government. The Public is defined as clients, voters, members of a community, media consumers, parents/students, online groups, citizens...basically, anyone consuming mass media. With social media, public relations can directly influence or manipulate the masses. Take, for example, Mark Zuckerberg's recent PR blunder and the Cambridge Analytica apology.

Propaganda is the idea or statement (often false or exaggerated/hyperbole...) that are spread culturally in order to help a cause, a political leader or party, a government, or any established institution. The fiasco concerning the Russian Bots, for example, are a good example of this.

Advertising, on the other hand, uses simple or fixed messages through "ads" to influence a consumer to buy a product. This may include product placement on social media or in films, for example.

Extra Credit TASK: take a look at these cartoons, PSA commercials, or media clips, and ask: What is the idea, statement, or image being shaped or spread? How might the message help a specific cause? What biases are inherent in the message? Then, in the COMMENT section of this post, please choose a few examples from what you've studied here and comment on the role of Public Relations & Propaganda in our Media today.

Commercial/PSAs:

More Propaganda and PSA films:

Cartoons:

HOMEWORK: Please read the chapter 11 handout on Advertising & Commercial Culture. Answer the ?'s for this unit by Friday, April 5. This score will count as a quiz grade. Your commercial projects are also due by Friday. If you have completed your work, please submit your URL for YouTube in the comment section below. Make sure the names of your group members is included.

Monday, April 1, 2019

Commercial Project: Day 2; Radio Plays

Commercial Project!

1. Work with a team of 1-3 people.

2. Brainstorm and select a product that you will be advertising. Ex. a food item, a household appliance, a common useful item, a tool, a clothes brand, etc.

3. Come up with a campaign theme/idea for your ad.

4. Choose video/audio that you want to use with the ad. You can download audio/video from Youtube or from other sources. You need to use a converter program to do so...Remember: you want to save your work as an MP3 or MP4!

5. If you can, use computer graphics or your computer skills to enhance your project. Again, see The Toothbrush Ad as an excellent example of what we want.

6. Use the storyboards to flesh out an idea.

7. Film your product/scene.

8. Edit your film and upload to Youtube. Send me the URL link.

Don’t get too carried away with elaborate visual elements; they can drive up the cost of your TV ads (or you won't be able to do these cool effects as students in our video editing programs...). You can create visuals that are effective but cheap with just takes a bit of creativity.

For example, instead of having a herd of wild horses gallop through a scene, you can use the sound effects of a herd of wild horses galloping by off-camera.

And did I mention this ad?

Today, to inspire you, check out these how-to videos for tips about making a commercial. After viewing the 3 videos, in the COMMENT section of this blog post, please record what you learned about making a commercial from the videos--what information seems most helpful? Make sure you mention your sources! (due today):

If you cannot find time to shoot your commercial outside of school, please use the time today in the lab to shoot your project. Let me know what your group needs and we'll see how to help you.

If you finish early (or need a short break), take a look at our Radio Plays in our Google classroom.

HOMEWORK: Please read the chapter 11 handout on Advertising & Commercial Culture. Answer the ?'s for this unit by Friday, April 5. This score will count as a quiz grade.

Thursday, March 28, 2019

Advertising

Advertising: the act or practice of calling public attention to one's product, service, need, etc., especially by paid announcements in newspapers and magazines, over radio or television, on billboards, etc.

The world is awash in marketing and advertising, and behind all of it there are incredibly creative people doing the conceiving, the writing, the design, the production, etc. Advertising companies constantly work with writers, illustrators, graphic designers, multimedia specialists, photographers, videographers, etc. They come from the professional world but they also come from art schools, backgrounds from writing programs and all kinds of places.
Commercial examples/models:

Nike
McDonalds #1; McDonalds #2; McDonald's #3; McDonald's #4
Wendy's #1; Wendy's #2
Coca-Cola #1; Coca-Cola #2
Skittles
Cartier
Oscar Mayer
Life cereal
Calgon
Levi's #1; Levi's #2
Cold Stone
ipod & apple
Campbell's Soup
Budweiser commericals

Here's a student example ad project from our past students' Gus Cuddy, Harrison Frank, and Gracie Elliott.

Please read the following, and take notes. Your upcoming task will be to create an effective TV advertisement for a "made up" product.

How to Create an Effective TV Advertisement

By Gary Dahl from Advertising For Dummies, 2nd Edition

What you put in your business's TV advertisement depends on your resources, your target audience, how you want to present your business or product, and your own comfort level. Consider these advertising possibilities:

Appear in your own commercial. You’ve probably seen a store owner step in front of the camera and do his or her own commercial. If you're a natural, then by all means, go for it. No one else could possibly bring the enthusiasm and expertise that you can to this endeavor.
Promote with a professional. Although you do have to fork out some extra cash, a professional actor may be just what your business needs. Before you decide on an actor, be sure to ask yourself what type of person will advertise your business in a way that attracts your target audience.
Highlight your place of business. Hiring a remote crew to come to your place of business and shoot the spot puts your business front-and-center. Plus, shooting footage inside your store, showroom, studio, or office may be a lot easier than hauling a bunch of your products somewhere else.
Focus the camera on your product. Go ahead and cut to the chase — immediately show the products you want to sell. You may be best served by getting right down to business and featuring the items that are going to make you some money.

After you decide what type of commercial you want to make, it's time to start putting it together. An effective TV commercial uses the three basic structural elements: audio, video, and computer graphics. Divide your TV ad's structure into these three elements to make your job much easier.

Decide on a big idea or campaign theme to use in your advertisement.

If you don’t have a theme, you’ll just develop a series of unrelated ads — which won’t help build name recognition for your company or attract customers to your business. [For our project, you will want to identify your goal and/or product.]
Choose the audio that you want to use in the commercial.

The audio can be a voiceover or an on-camera actor. The audio track may also include any music or sound effects that you select.
Come up with video that complements the audio you plan to use.

The video can be anything from you doing an on-camera sales pitch, to product footage, to video you shoot in your store, to anything else you can think of.
Add computer graphics, if they fit your advertisement.

Use computer graphics (CG for short) to flash words and prices on the screen. You can also use computer-generated effects, like making entire scenes fly into the frame, spin, explode, appear out nowhere, or perform other interesting tricks. [Be careful not to over do these effects--you are not selling effects, you are selling an idea or product!]

So, here's your job: Commercial Project!

1. Work with a team of 1-3 people.

2. Brainstorm and select a product that you will be advertising. Ex. a food item, a household appliance, a common useful item, a tool, a clothes brand, etc.

3. Come up with a campaign theme/idea for your ad.

5. If you can, use computer graphics or your computer skills to enhance your project. Again, see The Toothbrush Ad as an excellent example of what we want.

6. Use the storyboards to flesh out an idea.

7. Film your product/scene.

8. Edit your film and upload to Youtube. Send me the URL link.

HOMEWORK: Please read the chapter 11 handout on Advertising & Commercial Culture. Answer the ?'s for this unit by Friday, April 5. This score will count as a quiz grade. We will be working on our commercial projects during our lab time next week.

Tuesday, March 26, 2019

TV Project Evaluation & Reading; Documentary: South Park: Six Days to Air

If you are the following people, please get into your tv groups as follows:

Domino Effect: A'layza, Aalaysia
Crazed Carnival: Valerie, Jonaya, Tali
The Big Crunch: Emma, Makenna, Wesley, Madison

Read your scripts together. Complete your individual/group evaluation.

If you are the following people who did not complete your script episode, please complete your script episode while your group reads the script. Turn in your script draft (or as much as was completed) by the end of period 7 for minimal credit (your work is late...) to our Google Classroom only--please do not print your scripts!:

Domino Effect: Lesana, Keniah, Bisharo, Zacharia
Crazed Carnival: Liz, Farhan, Melinda
The Big Crunch: Degraj, Tia

Complete your individual/group evaluation. You may join your group if you finish with time remaining in period 7.

Period 8:

We will screen the documentary Six Days to Air (2011) which will conclude our TV unit.

HOMEWORK: None. Please make sure you have completed and turned in your individual/group evaluation form. This counts as a test score.

NOTE: We have a masterclass tomorrow during 3-4 period that you are expected to attend. Mr. Omar El Akkad (author of American War) will be with us tomorrow. Please bring your notebooks/journals to the masterclass.

Media Studies

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